Topic: Ships of WWII Part Five: IJN Zuikaku

[Chris SI]

Hard fighting Japanese carrier

The Zuikaku, along with her sister ship the Shokaku, was ordered under the 1937 Reinforcement Programme when it began to become obvious that conflict with the USA was likely and Japan was in need of building up still further her carrier forces. The result was two formidable ships that could hold their own with any American carrier before the 'Essex'-class and could have matched the heavily-protected and armor-decked 'Illustrious'-class of the Royal Navy.

The Zuikaku was laid down in May 1938 and launched in November 1939, being commissioned into the 5th Carrier Division in September 1941. With the Shokaku she participated in many actions, including the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Bismarck Archipelago and in the Battle of the Coral Sea where her air group shared responsibility for the sinking of the Lexington and the crippling of the Yorktown. The air losses and damage suffered in this action forced both ships to return to Japan for maintenance and crew training. As a result both ships missed the Battle of Midway.

Both carriers fought at the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, damaging the Enterprise, but again suffering heavy air losses (August 1942), yet both returned to fight at Santa Cruz in October when the Hornet was sunk and the Enterprise again damaged. There after the Zuikaku was shielded from action, most notably in the Gilberts, because of American air supremacy, but she fought at the Battle of the Philippine Sea (where the Shokaku was lost), being heavily damaged in the battle. As the only major carrier with Ozawa's forces at Leyte Gulf she was sunk by aircraft from the Essex and, ironically, the new Lexington on 25th October 1944.

The Zuikaku displaced over 26,000 tons. She carried the most powerful engines ever mounted in a Japanese warship, 160,000 shp giving her over 34 knots. Designed for work with the 'Yamato'-class battleships, her 5,000 tons of oil gave her a range of 9,500-miles at 18 knots. She could carry up to 84 aircraft, but on operations this was usually reduced to no more than 60. The ship had an armored deck and a defensive armament added after June 1944 of sixteen 127-mm Dual Purpose and 96 25-mm AA guns as well as 6 x 28 127-mm rocket launchers

[kmelew]

Out of curiosity, do you know of any websites that have English translations of Japanese ship names?

[Chris SI]

I have a book on the subject, don't know of any sites.

[kmelew]

I have a book on the subject, don't know of any sites.

What's the book called?  I know that the original German version of Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy had the translated names, but the English edition did away with that.

[Chris SI]

I have to dig it up,l don't remember the title off hand.